HEY RANDY !
An open message with a bit of handy info for Cincinnati blogger & UrbanCincy founder, Randy Simes.
US EMERGENCY EVACUATION PLAN SOUTH KOREA
Hope ya don't need it.

How Many Cops Do We Need ?
In this article at the Fishwrap, we see that a timely call to the police & co-operation result in a swift capture of a criminal. Over & over there are crimes in Cincinnati and, even though there are dozens of people present, "nobody saw a thing". Then the police are lambasted for not solving the crimes. This shit ain't magic, folks.
With the imminent layoff of at least 144 police officers, we need to quit bitching about the ineffectiveness of a nanny state & start working with these guys. The reason crime escalates is due to people keeping silent & protecting the criminals. If the criminals are confident in their actions they will just carry on. How about some confidence for the police?

Citizens on Patrol

If You Can't Be With the One You Love...

The lying and delusional Cincinnati streetcar opponents have started yet another club. This one headed up by a trio of abrasive, belligerent loudmouths, one of whom doesn't even live in the city. The usual suspects have popped up along with failed state auditor candidate, David Pepper & Connie Pillich in tow. Pepper is no longer a Cincinnati resident, either. Tyrone Yates has yet to join in. Do they really believe Luken's demented ravings & Miller's distortions ?
What is humorous, hypocritical & just bad politics is the overlap between the streetcar opponents & Westwood special interest proponents. That Kuhl & the Windbag think the city should invest in a venture in Westwood that will have virtually no positive economic impact & will likely get hauled into court with the city losing even more money and to not invest in a downtown venture which should have an acute economic impact on the city at large is the height of arrogance / stupidity. The improvements in just the OTR area should free up emergency personnel across the city. Using eminent domain to procure the Gamble House will likely end up an expensive failure costing the city millions & still not saving the home.
Is one more of a "pet project" than the other?
Will Charlie Winburn wind up with blood on his hands if the city purchases the Gamble House?
Is it really good form to ask the residents of OTR to buy a house in Westwood while at the same time telling them their neighborhood can go to hell? How do the COA Ters feel about their new allies circumventing personal property rights through eminent domain? oh yeah, they don't care about rights - that's the Libertarians.
COA T & Republicans fighting for the unions is straight out of bizarro world. Their efforts are sure to keep costs down, tho......
I know people like to work for the government because it offers a degree of stability, the city isn't going to close down anytime soon, but the government is not immune to economic upheavals. Economists pointed out that government bodies were going to suffer as commerce dropped, unemployment rose & tax revenues fell. Conservative citizens & politicians are constantly clamoring for balanced budgets & we are legally bound to adhere to that conservative principle. Cincinnati is fortunate that, while it's operational budget is hurting, it's capital budget is not in as bad shape. Can the capital budget be used for operating costs?
Here.
Now, why is there no clamoring for the Windbag's head for offering up capital budget money for the Gamble House? Why are we not hearing about Chuck, Mary & Dusty trying to kill us all? They have all been bought and paid for by the unions? COA T's best buddies for now...
hmmmmm........
Glad the Tea Party is around to call this shit out.


more on the subject.
Fishwrap ramblings

Will Ohio Need to Vote?
When Governor Strickland (D) wanted to authorize slots at horse racing facilities, Republicans & Christians cried foul, engaged the courts & fired up ballot initiatives to block him.
Now there are rumors that Governor-elect Kasich (R) might attempt the same thing.
Of course, the Kasich camp tells us that, like every other issue in the state except passenger rail, they have no plans.
Will this plan for increasing state revenue be opposed if a good Christian Republican suggests it?

Read all about it at the Fishwrap.

A Tale of Two Cities

When you talk about The Gamble House in Los Angeles, people think of a large immaculately preserved Arts & Crafts house owned by the city of Pasadena that attracts tourists from far & wide.



In Cincinnati, you get a contentious gaggle of people fighting over what, until recently, was a slowly deteriorating but viable old Victorian house on the west side of town. What is ironic is that Cincinnati, home to Procter & Gamble (to this day, a fine corporate citizen of the city), has much closer ties to the Gamble family. They were neighbors. They were employers. James Gamble was the mayor of Westwood at one point before it was annexed by Cincinnati. I guess that's why it is more emotional around here.
So why does the current owner, The Greenacres Foundation, founded by a descendant of Jim, want to demolish it? In the 70s Gamble descendant, Louis Nippert, put the home in the hands of the Greenacres Foundation precisely in an attempt to preserve the home similarly to the way the Los Angeles Gamble home was preserved. Now, the Greencres Foundation claims they want to establish the property as a park / nature preserve and can find no possible use for the structure. They cite astronomical costs in restoring & maintaining the building. Their projected maintenance costs gave Counclimember Chris Bortz, a person well acquainted with building maintenance, reason to pause.


So, back to L.A. They also have The Los Angeles Arboretum with this cool old restored Queen Anne Cottage sitting in the middle. Like The Gamble House in Pasadena, it is a source of local pride & delights tourists from around the world.
So, if Cincinnati followed this successful example, it could have both nature & a famous old home in one package. It seems so obvious, it's killin' me. The only entity not on board, however, is the foundation that owns the property.
Up in Springfield, Ohio an old dilapidated home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, that had, for years, been treated like pooh - sliced up into low rent apartments & later abandoned - was later saved through no small amount of civic & private work. The Westcott House now has daily tours & is used for receptions & educational events. It has also given the community a renewed sense of pride.
A number of folks are struggling to save the Cincinnati Gamble House however they can. Some members of City Council have suggested procuring the property through eminent domain. I think that would be problematic. Local businesses & organizations have volunteered to donate their work to preserving the property AND facilitating the park aspect Greenacres purports to want. People are raising funds to purchase & maintain the property. Neighbors are not opposed to the park idea. So far all offers have been rejected out of hand by The Greenacres Foundation.

If you are interested in learning more or getting involved,
Save The Historic Gamble House on FaceBook
email contact
Cincinnati Preservation Association
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Victorian Antiquities & Restoration
Cincinnati City Council
The Examiner

NTSB Holds Meetings Concerning Older Drivers
The National Transportation Safety Board is holding meetings yesterday & today on the topic of "Safety, Mobility, and Aging Drivers". This is in reaction to the aging baby boomers and their real & perceived issues in mobility.
While aging drivers are perceived to be the worst menace on the road, that honor still goes to teenagers / new drivers. Accidents in older drivers gets a lot of press but is actually down. The Baby Boomers are really the first generation to grow up in a car saturated society. Many of their parents would not have experienced that til their teens / early twenties FWIW.
There's money in retirement communities & they are all over the place. Thing is, new ones are usually built on virgin land on the outskirts of towns. Other than personal automobiles & tour buses, residents are pretty much stuck on these islands. There is a benefit to these places being somewhat removed as it reigns in Alzheimer's suffering "wanderers". In Cincinnati, Twin Towers requires a person to get to a bus stop but it is on a major bus line affording mobility for quite a few of it's residents using mainstream transit.
We have all seen the short buses for seniors & the disabled. These things run at about 30-40 bucks a ride. Cincinnati has seen reductions & price hikes in these service. This is how many seniors get to see their doctors.
An ideal opportunity is beckoning for these Boomers who are in sound mind, however, with the streetcar project and the developable properties in The CBD, The Banks & Over the Rhine. The connection to Clifton & the medical resources cements it.
With the ease of access for walking challenged people & the smoother ride, the streetcar will be an ideal platform for the older passenger. Proximity to entertainment, shopping, dining & services without the need, hassle & possible problems of having a car make it an ideal combination. The population would make downtown more attractive to doctors & other health care providers as well.
Many of the older buildings will not be practical for handicap access, of course, especially from a restoration POV, but some will be.
I know a lot of people view the streetcar as an opportunity to cart around drunken transient college students, and I know old people are transient in their own way, but this would be a better community building population, bringing it's own brand of diversity, into the basin.

Watch on C-Span here.

How do I arrange getting busted by these chicks ?
Preferably something involving tackling, "resisting", handcuffs, etc.....
That guy looks to be in complete bliss.

Why All the Vacant Housing ?
Looking around at all the vacant housing in Cincinnati, you have to wonder what the owner is doing with his property that he seems ok with just letting it sit & deteriorate pulling down neighboring property values, while paying taxes, utilities, VBMLs & such.
This guy just got busted for renting out vacant houses he didn't own.
So ~ why can't the owners get their shit together & rent the damn things out?

Cincinnati Takes to the Clouds
In an effort to save money, the City of Cincinnati is looking at changing it's computer systems. They are looking at virtualization & cloud computing.
Taking this route is supposed to result in 30% - 40% savings over all. It reduces the costs of individual licenses & maintenance for every computer & consolidates server operations. Just going open source would solve the licensing but there would still be the high maintenance costs for the massive number of computers & systems involved. It also slows things down a bit for the user (the graphics guys will likely want to up their blood pressure meds).
This all seems ok but security is kind of an issue. This article at govtech outlines basic concerns & points out that when you finally get your security up to snuff, it starts eating away at your savings significantly. Also, and this is a much greater concern to me, is that the city is planning on turning over the central data storage to a private company. Two companies the city is looking at are Google & Micro$oft.
Google, Micro$oft & IBM have been working with municipalities in New York, California & Michigan (not without some hiccups). A major sticking point here is that any provider demands indemnity from the city & Ohio state law forbids that. With good reason, I think. The provider would be privy to sensitive info regarding tax, police, court & health records of citizens. Carlsbad, CA required background checks of Micro$oft employees who would be working with their systems. Everything checked out ok but in today's world a Micro$oft or Google could be taken over by a Chinese or Indian company any day. Cincinnati has been around for over 200 years & will likely be around for another 200 in one way or another. While IBM will be turning 100 next year Google's only 28 & Micro$oft is only 35. What happens if they start charging us double or a Chinese Google starts filtering information?
I think a better solution might be to consolidate systems in Columbus & have municipalities use a central statewide system. The consolidation & statewide standardization could probably find all sorts of efficiencies especially in law enforcement.

Springfield Rocks
Avalanche 1975

Let the good times roll.
This was recorded at a wretched hole called "The Sandpiper". They had chicken wire across the front of the stage area. I saw this band more often at an even more wretched hellhole called "The New Frolics" where a mass brawl would inevitably break out every night. There were no tables & chairs there, just wooden picnic tables that were a lot harder to throw or break.
Some friends of mine would organazize parties where they would rent out K of C halls or apartment complex party rooms, hire a band & serve "free" beer after charging admission. Avalanche was one of their favorite bands.
Unfortunately I don't think there are any recordings of Brontosaurus.

Rebirth or Zombie Uprising?
AKA SSDD
Listening to John Boehner sloooowwwly say nothing in his deep baritone, I kept thinking about a press conference Vic Gold made at the Cato Institute back in the summer of 2007 when he was touting his book, Invasion of the Party Snatchers. Gold, an excitable, fast talking man commented how people would comment on how he sounded "radical" - not because of what he said but the way he said it and how people like Dick Cheney & particularly Ramsey Clark, could say any outrageous thing & be taken seriously because they spoke slowly & in a deep voice like Boehner.
I looked up the broadcast on C-Span & found more of what he said pretty interesting.
It's here.
His book describes how southern Democrats or Holy Rollers, disenchanted with Johnson & Carter, gradually took over the Republican Party (think Reagan Democrats) & changed the face of what we call Conservatism for the worse. Much worse. Like a Linda Blair possession worse.
He predicted the Republicans would get creamed in 2008 and their only chance of moving forward would be to die & be reborn.
In 2008 they were looking pretty toasted. In 2010 they came back like gangbusters but was it reborn or was it something more akin to a zombie apocalypse or some kind of Frankenstein's monster brought back to life by mad Tea Party scientists?
Gold points out what the Republican Party needs to do to regain it's true old school conservative roots at about 24:30 in the video.
The party must die & be reborn:
∇ It can't carry on about groups like Planned Parenthood and obsess on the failed war on abortion rights.
∇ It must render unto Caesar & unto God but on different days of the week.
∇ It must see America as a beacon & not the policeman for the world.
∇ It must embrace fiscal conservatism & quit wild deficit spending.
∇ It must see family values as something the family, not the state defines.
∇ It must be alert to the dangers of a strong centralized government.
Well, not much change. There's lip service to the fiscal conservatism but we have heard that that refrain before. It's as recognizable as "BRAAAIINSSS".
The rest? SSDD
I suggest we all remember Sheriff McClelland's advice.
Happy Guy fawkes Day, everybody!

Election Thoughts
I think a Portman win could have been called a month or two ago. In the land of coulda woulda, I wonder how Brunner would have fared. She couldn't have run a campaign worse than Fisher.
Wonder how many votes, the Beacon's boy, LaBotz siphoned off of Fisher.
Conway's last ditch "outing" of Paul was pretty hopeless & probably killed him. Linking the guy to anti-Christian secret societies sounded kinda loopy for what sounded about as sinister as college hijinks.
Dale no show Mallory stays in office & out of jail. Maybe the Republicans could have tried?
Monzel off to the county commission to stop the streetcar.....
& retread Chabot is back in
So, to recap
Kasich, Boehner, Chabot, Mallory, Monzel, Wilson...
Dumb wins.

Faith Matters

by Subodh Gupta
nabbed from The Daily Undertaker

ok, since you NEED this because you had no idea who to vote for on your own, here's my list of recommeded candidtates for the election Tuesday. It's probably a list of people who will lose, too.
As usual, when in doubt, vote Libertarian.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
US Congress 1st District
  Steve Driehaus
US Representative 8th District
  Justin Coussoule
Governor
  Ted Strickland
State Representative 32nd District
  Eric Nebergall
State Representatice 28th District
  Connie Pillich
State Representativ 31st Distric
  Denise Driehaus
Hamilton County Commissioner
  Jim Tarbell
Hamilton County Auditor
  Dusty Rhodes

I would like to thank Dale Mallory for not making this a straight Democratic ticket. That would have been a first.

Creepy Crap for a Halloween Weekend

Not only will you have a chance to shamble your zombie stuff at the Cincinnati Zombie Walk downtown tonight with an after party at the Mockbee, you can also pedal your zombie stuff in a Zombie Ride from Wesleyan Cemetery to Newport 10/29/10.
The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company will be staging Dracula Friday & Saturday at 7:30 & Sunday at 2.
This is the stage version John Carradine made famous.
Haunted Queen City walking tours Friaay & Saturday starting every hour from 7:30 - 9:30
Rally for Sanity Midwest Adjunct will be on Fountain Square from noon to 3PM
State of the Matter will continue in Northside from noon to 3 on Saturday.
The Enemy Within: Terror in America 1776 to Today all weekend & beyond at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center 11 - 5

Lying By Omission
Tea Partiers support smaller government, lower taxes & a strong military with a strong foreign presence.
Ron Paul, in his bid for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2008 had a fund raiser on he anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, 12/16/07. (link). Many consider this to be the beginning of the Tea Party Movement.
By August of '08, however, the Tea Party of Sarah Palin & Glenn Beck was not exactly what Ron Paul had in mind. (link).
Does smaller government sound good? sure Lower taxes? great
But how?
The Tea Party claims it has no social agendas to pursue.
So what do they want to cut in spending to reduce taxes? Not the military.
So, let's look at what holds the Tea Party, whose candidates are "you", together. By examining this, we can get an idea of what their policies will be in shrinking the government.
About 11% of the population identifies itself with the Tea Party. This is a bit smaller than the Black or Latino population.
It's predominantly white - in line with the US population.
A little over half make $50k or more per year - about the average but well above the American median income.
Members are 48% Republican, 28% Republican leaning & about 8% Democratic - nationwide it's more along the lines of 30% Republican & 35% Democrat.
It's membership is 81% Christian - about in line with the nation.
The majority, 57%, consider themselves "Christian Conservatives", about twice as much as the average American at 22%.
They are 85% opposed to gay marriage, about twice the national average.
They are 65% anti-choice opposed to 45% nationwide.
They are more than twice as likely than the national average (25% / 11%) to think the government favors black people over white.
Looking at these samnesses & differences from mainstream society where can we expect to see government shrinking?
It is likely they will find some shrinkage in reducing services they see as benefitting black people.
They will likely work to create a tax structure more attractive to their financial base like regressive sales taxes over income taxes.
Actually, it is likely Tea Partiers will want to expand government to pursue it's religious agendas forcing churches to not marry gays & forcing doctors to not perform abortions & forcing young girls to be disabled or die from bearing the unwanted children conceived by brutal incestuous rape. Dunno if they will shrink funding for dealing with the orphans or disabled mothers.
I fear they, like organizations like HSUS will be wolves in sheep's clothing. Their insistence that they are average Joes when in reality, like animal rights advocates, they are a minority. The fact Rush Limbaugh plays prominently in both groups is disconcerting.
They claim to be angry with Washington & the status quo but support several candidates who do indeed represent the status quo but are staunch supporters of the religionist agenda that permeates the Tea Party.
Their not being up front about this is essentially, lying by omission.
The Tea Party appears to be nothing more than another rebranding of the old Moral Majority & Silent Majority of the past - groups touted as a majority but never more than a very vocal minority emboldened with a strong & potentially dangerous streak of zealotry.

source
source
source
source

Jim Tarbell's Ad

Jim Tarbell has been walking a pretty lackluster campaign. Tarbell is pretty impressive when he gets fired up, but his normal demeanor doesn't do him much good as he is generally a kind of slow moving, slow talking guy who will think things through before talking. That is - he doesn't shoot from the hip with half baked ideas - an attribute the local paper likes about his opponent. Well, sure, it makes more news. I am sure the tabloids were crushed when Michael Dukakis didn't get elected president so we could watch his wife self destruct in the check out lanes at the grocery but is that how we should choose our representatives?
Tarbell has a nickname of Mr Cincinnati. great How's that play in the various townships? This ad would have been greatly improved with pictures in the background showing various highlights of the county. On his FaceBook page he has some really bad cell phone shots of a few places around the county that are about unrecognizable. Most people want vibrant color pictures. People depict their opponents in monochrome /flat color in their attack ads for Pete's sake. The recording is weak, the lighting is uninspired & the camera angle could be better. He sounds like he is talking to a camera.
I guess we might as well start getting used to GOP tool, Kid Monzel...

Enquirer Skewers Candidate They Endorse
The Enquirer's AdWatch pretty much dismantles Chris Monzel's aattack ad on Jim Tarbell in the Hamilton County Commissioner race.
But still they endorse him?
With endorsements like these, how much should we value their other endorsements?

Is Chris Monzel a Good Representative ?
ex-Cincinnati Councilman David Crowley (D) introduced an "Environmental Justice" legislation that was narrowly passed with Monzel, a Spring Grove Village resident, in opposition. Councliman Berding (I) has introduced an effort to repeal the legislation & Monzel is in support.
FWIW, I think it is bad legislation & should be repealed.
On 10/26, in the City Council Quality of Life Committee, the president of the Spring Grove Village Community Council spoke out in opposition to the legislation's repeal citing how the neighborhood's environmental quality has suffered significantly in ways that the legislation was intended to prevent in the future.
Is this how Monzel would represent his community in the future?
Or will the "Son of the Suburbs" be leaving town shortly after he becomes a Hamilton County Commissioner?
I think it's safe to say Cincinnati will not be represented well with Monzel as a commisioner.

OK, aside from telling the Black Panther dude that the US has always been a "land of the free", what, exactly, is gained by having a guy swear an oath on a book he doesn't believe?
I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth & nothing but the truth, so help me, Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The Zombie Side of Sears

Accessorize like the living
Tone while you lumber
Brain stains be gone
Sears dicked me on a washing machine / dryer deal about 19 years ago so I refuse to do business with 'em but their Halloween Zombie promotion is pretty good.
Complete with videos, a zombie gift guide & an undead Twitter feed. The zombie treadmill is probably my fave.

Does COA T Support Tax Dollars for Parochial Schools ?
Why does COA T want you to not vote for Denise Driehaus? On 10/22 the COA T blog gives us this:

"Denise Driehaus voted not once but 3 times FOR $60 MILLION in cuts to state funding for Catholic Schools"

Does COA T arrogantly believe that the Protestant Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans of Ohio should pay for their elite Catholic Schools when they don't even want to pay for their own kid's tuitions? Given the financial woes of the state, is this what we should be spending money on? Seems like they should admire her courage & fiscal conservatism. But, no - she's a Democrat & COA T is just a mouthpiece for the Republican party & apparently, the Roman Catholic church.
Remember this on November 5.
And there's more!
In the same article they admit to siding with the ACLU, the right to lie in political speech & big, intrusive government that tells women what they can & cannot do with their own bodies (AKA slavery).
If anybody ever tells you COA T is libertarian, rest assured, they are not.

Halloween Sex Toys ?

The Succu-Dry - Sex-In-A-Can!
While the Blogging Isn't Cool staff ~cough cough~ is somewhat acquainted with sex in THE can, this sex in a can is something new. The new SuccuDry is, well,,,,,
weird
Maybe we can get the manufacturer to send a case of the things & we can evaluate it's merits.
hmmmm

More Crap To Do in Spooky Northside
Land Between the Cemeteries
The Ghosts of Northside Tour
Sunday, October 24 at noon.
Visit the final resting places of some famous Northsiders, including the fantastic monument of Jacob Hoffner, Johann Caspar Bruckmann and others with tour guide Dianne Brake, Spring Grove Docent. Meet at 11:45 at the parking lot by the Spring Grove Offices
$2 admission for adults, free for children under 13.
The walking tour is about one hour and encounters some hilly terrain.
*****************************
State of the Matter
October 23 - 30 in Family Friendly Northside
Glass Blowing in Hoffner Park noon to 4 on the 23rd
Flame Working at Prairie Galleris 2 to 4 on the 23rd & 24th
*****************************
Halloween Pumpkin Party & Bake Sale @ Happen Inc. 10A to 5P
*****************************
Harvest Festival Community Potluck @ MoBo / Village Green 5 to 7 on the 24th

Don't Vote ?

A Republican Latino organization in Nevada, Latinos for Reform, produced an ad urging Latinos to simply not vote because Democrats didn't pass an immigration reform bill in the last 2 years.
Be careful what you wish for...
The network, Univision, refused to air the ad. Instant gratification & shameless partisanship aside, is not voting a good solution?
If you simply don't vote, the politicians write you off. If you make a protest vote for the "other" corporate party, like a Borg drone, you get absorbed into their "continuum". A protest vote or an earnest vote for a 3rd party won't matter much today but the more of these votes registered, the more attention the corpo-parties will take. They have already gone to great lengths to restrict ballot access & debate eligibility in an effort to silence dissent.
You have to vote to make any difference. I am not sure what happens if a ballot is entered empty but that might be an option, too. In the last presidential election I voted for a lot of stuff but I left the presidential options blank. Did anybody notice? beats me
Thing is, if you are not counted, you don't count.
Here's an English version of the ad FWIW.

Attack of the Vegan Zombies

Living in a neighborhood of neo-hippie vegans that's sandwiched between two good sized cemeteries, I have often wondered how these people would fare in the inevitable Zombie Uprising. I thought Attack of the Vegan Zombies might explore such a situation.
It did not.
It would have better been titled something like The Wrath of Dionysus or something. It is much more about sorcery than traditional Zombism.
It is a decent effort brought in for about $35k by Richmond, VA independent film maker Jim Townsend.
The plot embraces tried & true elements like horny young people, people holed up in a house, disagreements about how to deal with matters & so on. The adult acting is ok, the kids, well...
The sorceress mother is actually pretty good.
The plot involves a spell to improve the harvest at a vineyard that goes awry & the vines take over with a hankering for people who become "Zombies". Actually they become more like maenads, the worshippers of Dionysus, Greek god of the vine. The female lead, played aptly by Christine Egan, is even named Dionne. hint hint
Of course the guys gotta get Zombified /maenaded, too, so...
All in all, a fun movie. While Zombieish, it also has a strong supernatural thing going on, too, that is not normally seen in Zombie films.

Looks like COA T got caught sitting on their hands. The result? Sue for taxpayer dollars. COA T regularly can't win in the normal electoral process so it needs to go for lawsuits & misrepresenting ballot issues all done while taking advantage of the local Republican press.
Hughes High School students were bused on school time in non-school (church) buses to the HamCo BOE to vote early. At the BOE they were presented with Democrat sample ballots by an independent person. Apparently COA T wasn't aware of this operation & weren't able to pass out their own literature, so a desperate Tom Brinkman (R), who knows he has little chance in his campaign against Dusty Rhodes, has had COA T's lawyers sue CPS.
Free money, free publicity, hell, even I hate CPS, so it gets people all worked up.
If the school had requested sample ballots to show the kids in the school, I don't know how that would go. Political nuts would probably swarm out of the woodwork like the religious nuts do over sex & religious education.
I am assuming the woman who handed out the sample ballots just happened to know about the event because she is ex-CPS & probably has casual associations with current CPS folks.
Frankly, the non-school buses concern me a little more than anything else in this story.
I do not think COA T is trying to suppress the vote as Mr Griffin suggests. In that event, they would be having the ballots destroyed while crying voter fraud.
I think a better lesson for the kids might have been to simply have them collect sample ballots & their "I Voted" stickers to prove they voted on election day.
Voting on election day brings citizens & neighbors together & helps build community. If there is a plot, I would say it's by the people who promote absentee voting in an effort to keep people isolated & unaware of differing points of view. Or that COA T & the Cinti NAACP have a mutual agenda of destroying public schools so they can better control the brainwashing of society. But that's just my paranoid rambling.

Fishwrap (R) story here.

I'm not terribly impressed with Ayn Rand. I find her to be a pretty simplistic reactionary. The people who worship her seem to be pretty fucked up & as miserable as the characters in her books. In this segment she speaks to some kind of Goldwaterian issues that tend to fly in the face of some of her modern neocon adherents.

The Missiles of October

All day long I was thinking there was something significant about this date.
duh
This is the anniversary of the day in 1962 a U.S. photo reconnaissance plane spotted missile bases under construction in Cuba. That is, the beginning of the "Cuban Missile Crisis".
It was probably one of the hottest battles of the "Cold War".
Read the Wiki article here.

Raising Taxes
Gannett published an article that made it into the Fishwrap's print edition but was relegated to a USA Today page (as opposed to the online NKY Enquirer pages) about the political campaigning regarding Stickland's raising (or not) of taxes.
In the article it states

"as a difficult budget negotiation raged, Strickland's preferred alternatives dried up"

Stickland's alternative was, of course, allowing slot machines at race tracks. This plan was blocked by a number of church groups including the Ohio Council of Churches and the United Methodist Anti-Gambling Task Force and a group led by COA T co-founder & CCV ally Tom Brinkman called Let Ohio Vote.
Let Ohio Vote, heavily funded by a Virginia organization, New Models, collected signatures for a ballot referendum on the issue & then handily withdrew the ballot.
The head honcho for New Models was a Republican who also worked for Sarah Palin. Brinkman served as a state representative as a Republican.
The governor, unable to patch a deficit hole with slot machine revenue postponed a planned tax cut. Rev John Edgar of the United Methodist Anti-Gambling Task Force said this or even a tax hike would be preferable to slots.
So is the Democrat governor to blame for a tax hike or, more to the point, not giving us a tax cut? Or is it result of a small group of politically savvy Republican theocrat obstructionists?

101010

Spring grove Cemetery is hosting another annual Cruise In with cars dating back to before those ancient days of 1985.
There will be grub, a guided "Cemetery Cruise" at 6 PM, mini tram tours and a vintage hearse exhibit.
Sadly, Kim Falcon is not scheduled to attend.
Be there or be square.

Captain Lust


popular sea chanty
PTL for the intertubes.
Back before VCRs & DVDs & such, porn was a little more professional. There were actually "stars", stories, direction, production values (ok, all borderline) and they were distributed through the theater circuit in the traditional way. Captain Lust was one of those movies. Produced in 1977 it told the tale of two rival pirate crews, one a crew of nasty men commanded by the evil Captain Lust (and the evil Cuntessa) & another, a crew of pirate women (with hearts of gold) led by some handsome captain dude, in a race to find a hidden treasure. Captain Lust has an advantage, however, in that he actually has a treasure map. The map is tattooed onto the penis of an idiot monk, Brother John and to read it he must be erect. To facilitate this they kidnap a nun and.....
The movie has it all. action, drama, passion, romance, & saucy pirate songs!
My friends & I decided to go out to the New Moon Drive In (now a mustard distribution facility) to see the movie. We had had a keg party the night before & had not finished the keg (yeah, we were slackers), so we loaded it into a van, packed up some lawn chairs & went to the drive in.
We hoisted brews, sang along with the choruses & laughed at the close ups of genitalia on the 60 x 30 foot screen.
It was a memorable evening. Good friends, stale beer, overbuttered, oversalted popcorn, pirate songs & smut. What could be better?
Anyway, the industry didn't think much of archiving their work so when video tape & later DVDs came along Captain Lust seemed to be lost.
One notable actress from the movie, Sharon Mitchell, said many fans recalled the movie fondly for years. She ended her career in porn after being viciously raped. She went on to get a PHD in sexuality & started up the AIM Healthcare Foundation that helps performers in the porn industry deal with physical & mental health issues.
Anyway, in searching for this movie I did find a picture of a DVD cover but it was on a Russian website. Getting adult movies shipped to Cincinnati can be dicey, anyway. Finally, I found it on a torrent site & I am downloading as I type. At 1.2 KB/s (more like a trickle), I should have it sometime in mid October.
YAY!
Anybody up for a pre-Halloween screening?
In my basement.
With the windows blacked out?

Northside House Tour

Sunday, October 3 marks the 20th anniversary Northside House Tour. XIII in fact. yeah, don't try to do the math....
This year's tour is less focussed on restoration & more on renovation. 12 buildings in all, the tour includes a store that had to be completely gutted to create a single family home and a church that once hosted a wedding on motorcycles and now houses an IT firm.
Most of the homes on the tour were remodeled by the owners, some pro, some not. One house was remodeled by CNCURC who has refurbished a few houses in Northside as well as built a couple LEED certified homes on a previously troublesome corner.
The tour runs from the east side of the neighborhood to the west & there are free vans to negotiate some of the longer walks between buildings. The route is about 2.4 miles & there are a lot of steps. There are also a lot of great views.
Tickets can be purchased at the door at The McKie Recreation Center, 1655 Chase Avenue on the third for $18 or today for $15 at:
Shake It Records
Taykor Jameson Hair Salon
North Side Bank & Trust
Building Value
and online here
Happen Inc., a family art organization, will be open & will be distributing wind chimes made by the kids to the first 50 - 75 people. CAIN & The Family Enrichment Center will also be open.
St Bonifave church is on the tour (after 1PM) and will be hosting an organ recital at 4PM.
As usual, there's plenty of good eats in Northside with brunches at Melt, Take the Cake, Honey, Ko Sho, The Comet, and Sidewinder Coffee & Teas. Later, The Comet & Mayday will be open with their regular menus & the Comet Bluegrass All Stars will be playing at The Comet around 8.

I Got a CGI On You

The Daily Mail tells us that Jessica Alba does not really appear naked in the new smash hit movie, causing race riots across the land, Machete. She is rally wearing utrou & it has been magically removed with CGI for the movie. Ms Alba claims she is too shy & proper to appear naked in a move. But she does appear naked, so.....
In my experience, however, it is a lot easier to robe a person than to disrobe a person, so I'm actually wondering if she was, in fact, filmed naked & the supposedly pre post production shots are actually post production shots released to save face.
Not that she needs to. Alba isn't the greatest actress in the world but she doesn't have to parade around naked to put on a good show. Just give her a gun & she's good to go.

South Fountain Porch Festival

The third annual South Fountain Porch Festival is Saturday from 9AM - 2PM on S Fountain Ave. between Clark & Liberty in scenic Springfield, OH.

Noose Son story here.
More on the area here.

Popular Art ?
Cincinnati City Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan has proposed dedicating 1% of casino revenues to public sculpture that will be chosen by unofficial votes by the citizenry. Unofficial, like via computers - so it might not even be votes by US citizenry. Estimated annual revenues from the casino, which is not slated to open til 2012, is expected to be $20M. Councilman Bortz has his eyes on 50% or more of the money but that's another story.
Cincinnati, outside it's cemeteries, has a serious lack of sculpture. My objections to Ms Quinlivan's plan is twofold. While I have no objection to the government spending on artistic / creative enhancements to the infrastructure type stuff government is supposed to be involved in, I am leery of it just buying art for art's sake. Further, the popular voting seems really dubious, look at what the popular vote gives us in the commercial world. Desperate Housewives, Vampire Diaries, Dancing With the Stars, Resident Evil, Wall Street 2, Trey Songz, Katy Perry.....
I would suggest the money be matched with private money to get the most bang for the buck & let the individual, business or organization pick & create the sculpture with the stipulation that the city retains rights to it.
Monarchy is key to good art. It certainly doesn't come from the boardroom or fickle popularity contests.

Buy a Vote ?
So far candidates in Ohio have spent $25,000,000 in this campaign season. Of Ohio's approximately 9 million possible voters, less that 8 million are registered to vote. Estimates for this fall's election are for 30% of registered voters to actually vote. This is working out to about $11/vote (so far).
Since the votes are going to be split about in half, this means 10% of the population will decide who gets elected -or- to be a little more cynical, only 10% of the population will actually be represented.

Demolition Imminent

Demolition plans are in place for Springfield's Veteran's Memorial Hall. The National Trail Parks and Recreation District expects to be building a $5.5 million ice skating rink in early 2011. Plans for reusing the facade are not as clear as they were some months ago. It's disassembly is expected to take 1 month.
Meanwhile ex-tenants, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, will be kicking off a new season Saturday featuring the works of Wagner, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky.

Memorial Hall Then & Now Slideshow here

Noose Son story here.

Why Was There No Security ?
A stripper was sent out to provide entertainment in a private residence at 4:40 AM on August 7. Why did they not send along a bodyguard? I don't know how common a practice that is but it seems like common sense. Taking your clothes off in a stranger's home does place a person in a degree of vulnerability. At least someone should have gone along to assess the situation.
She claims the customer was acting inappropriately & she left his home while he pursued her. In the confusion, she struck & inadvertently pinned the guy under her car. When she realized what had happened she called the police.
What are the chances of this spinning so tragically out of control if the stripper had just been accompanied by a security guy? Clubs that employ strippers usually employ a fairly aggressive security force. Not knowing what shift the customer worked, I would assume him to be fairly intoxicated by 4:40 AM. Bad behavior could almost be expected.
Not employing security in such a venture just seems like a bad business practice.

Fishwrap story here.

Yunguns Skip Cable
I found this story saying 30% of young netflix subscribers are skipping cable interesting as I have opted to use Blockbuster & Time Warner's Lifeline. While the rock bottom Lifeline package has no "elite" stations I can watch all the programming at my own pace on DVDs from the video store. True Blood, Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, The United States of Tara...
I kinda need cable for CitiCable, but that's about it.
The article points out the young people are active with other stuff and as such less likely to have an interest or even the economy to have cable. I barely watched TV in my 20s but then watching a movie back then meant going to a theater.
heck, I remember when MTV was kinda cool.

Move over John Legend another Frogtowner is singin'...

Tea Party Endorsements Gone Wild.

After a guy with tea bag endorsements gets busted for pedophilia their latest darling is outed on "dabbling" in witchcraft / satanism. I didn't remember this episode but I remember seeing the airhead on the old Politically Incorrect show. I doubt she knows what she is talking about regarding witchcraft & was probably just trying to get some kind of spiritual "cred". But, at least she doesn't lie!
I don't like Maher's later work but the old Politically Incorrect shows from the Comedy Central days were pretty good. People appearing on the show seemed to think they were on local access cable or something. A lot of feet in mouths.
LOL- Maher talking about bad hair....

ONE NIGHT IN NORTHSIDE

A Northside Skatepark Fundraiser
Saturday September 18th, 2010, 7 -10 pm in Hoffner Park with 3 amazing bands!

• The Lions Rampant
• The Frankl Project
• The Messengers

There will be a silent auction, Local Artist designed skateboard decks, Skateboard demos
For info call 523-305-2988 or email ellauciello.

Should I embrace the TEA bag crowd? Their ambiguous desire for smaller, limited, less intrusive government does appeal to me.

I would like the government not tell me I can't smoke marijuana.
I would like the government not tell women they can't have abortions.
I would like the government to not tell my church they can't marry who they want.
I would like the government to refrain from buying, installing or maintaining religious artwork.
I would like to see foreign military bases in Japan, Cuba, England & Germany be closed.
I would like to see the interstates funded solely with user fees.
I would like to see the government refrain from stopping adult entertainment in areas zoned for business / entertainment.
I would like to see the government not tell me what I can read.
I would like the federal government to stay out of education.
I would like to see funding for military bands eliminated.
Is this on the right track?

World Equestrian Games
My sister is into animal competition. yeah, she's probably on a PETA hit list somewhere...
Anyway, she decided to volunteer at the World Equestrian Games. This ain't a horse race like the Kentucky Derby, it's more about training agility & whatnot. So as she told me more & about where all the competitors were coming from I actually paid a little attention to her. When a guy with a deep voice & British accent laid it out for Laure Quinlivan's council committee, I listened & started to realize how big this thing was. I mean physically big. It's the biggest one they have ever done. It's the first time it's been held in the USA & people from all over the world are flying their horses here for the event. I have seen horses freak out in a trailer, I can't imagine flying a bunch overseas.
One of the interesting competitions is Para Dressing which is designed to allow physically disabled people to work with their horses. This is another first for the WEG.
Anyway lame Fishwrap coverage here and here with plenty of dumb comments.

My giant-ass new recycling bin with high tech gizmos & potential prizes has arrived!
Why can't we just use trash cans? We were gonna buy 'em anyway.....
This is good timing since the clowns came by before I had my recycling out last week.
But wait, am I on a 2 week schedule now?
Can I write my house nomber on this thing?
More fun in the modern world, I tell ya.
HOLY CRAP! THIS THING HAS HOLLOW PLASTIC WHEELS THAT SOUND LIKE A FRIGG'N BIG WHEEL! THAT'S GOING TO BE PLEASANT IN THE AM.

Ever want to try your hand at CGI? You think social media is a time waster?
The Strata company has reintroduced it's stripped down version of it's flagship 3D software for a mere 99¢. This also includes 2 weeks of online training material. The stripped down version ain't gonna have you making the next Barbie blockbuster but buildings & extruded type aren't a far fetch.
You have seen it here whilst I was doodling,
concocting innovative bridge design,
found new ways to reduce costs & increase efficiency at city hall
and find bold new ways to display illegible type. Unfortunately the animation engine is not included in the package.
Still, well worth the cool 99¢.
And the guy who writes the tutorials actually knows what he is doing!

I think that pretty much sums it up. Looking like a real 7 of swords kinda day.

Life, Death and Beer
What to do this weekend.....
On the anniversary of cowardly attack on the US by a cadre of, essentially, gangsters wrapping themselves in false flags of nationalism & religion, there's plenty of choices for Cincinnatians to consider their home & heritage. Hopefully nobody here has to mourn a loss from that tragedy. Fortunately my cousin-in-law made it out in one piece.
Anyway, per usual with weekends of outdoor events, it's supposed to rain.....

Friday will be the last evening walk through Northside's Buttercup Valley Nature Preserve sponsored by Northside Greenspace for the season.

There's tours aplenty in the downtown area starting with a Civil War tour sponsored by Queen City Underground.
The tours start at 10:30 AM at Mica at 12th & Vine.

Meanwhile up in Clifton, The Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary will be holding their Oktoberfest with games, gambling, raffles, food and beer on Saturday & Sunday. They will offer up Clowns on stilts making animal balloons for children, fire jugglers, performers of Clifton Performance Theatre and Fairview-Clifton German Language School.
Also, on the 11th the Clifton Cultural Arts Center, 3711 Clifton Avenue, will be opening the Uptown Artist's Exhibition from 6-9PM.

Norhside Christian Church will be hosting Fun Fest from 10A - 3P at 4114 Fergus Avenue.

Later, Spring Grove Cemetery hosts another Lantern Lighting Ceremony from 5 - 8PM. Entertainment will be provided by the McGing Irish Dancers, Blarnacles, Sugarfoot Cloggers and Son del Caribe. The Hamilton County Police Honor Guard and the Emerald Society of Cincinnati Police and Fire Pipes & Drums will perform at the ceremony.
They will also be showing the great photos chosen for their 2011 calendar. You can see the gallery online here.

Also on Sunday you can attend the Gateway Quarter Tour of Living which starts, I guess we should know this by now, at 12th and Vine downtown. Second Sunday will be happening, too.

And if all this life & death celebration stuff is too much & you just want to forget, The Cincinnati Beer Fest will be going on down at Fountain Square Friday through Sunday (with breaks).

1,000 Points of Light Into a Laser Beam

An interesting sound bite from Thad Allen, retired Coast Guard Admiral who has been involved with a few disasters - Haiti, Katrina & the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which he oversaw. Coming up on the anniversary of the World Trade Center attack, we should recall there was some disorganization / communication problems there, too, despite the overwhelming amount of support.
He talks about involving the greater community of the nation in a more organized & effective way to deal with these disasters & references George H.W. Bush's Thousand Points of Light concept.

Whole NPR Mourning Edition here.
Maybe it's just me but I really don't like Steve Inskeep as an announcer.

Northside From the Columbus Dispatch's POV

Steven Rosen over at the Columbus Dispatch's Travel section wrote a very positive article about Cincinnati's Northside neighborhood. This is good and it's important since most people from out of town would just see the downtown area as being "Cincinnati".

Worried About Mosques ?

OK, it's a cultural center. It beats the crap out of building a casino (another cultural center?) next to a historic battlefield.

Happy Labor Day Weekend Everybody !

The guy on the left is the groom?
whatever - he just adds a touch of class, ya know? And here at Blogging isn't Cool, we like to keep it classy.

The Laughing Noodle Est Arrive

White Castle's entry into the noodle biz has opened in Springfield, Ohio at 1901 North Bechtle Ave.
The official grand opening won't be for a bout a month tho, on Saturday, September 25 from 9:00A to 7:00P.
While still offering traditional sliders, they will be offering noodle dishes with Marniara and meatballs sauces, Teriyaki Chicken and Mac and Cheese.
They seem to have abandoned their original website & have opted for a Facebook site to promote the store. While the old site had a form to enter contact info, that site is down & the same page is now here.
It's pretty amazing to see this iconic Ohio company branch out into a new business after doing 1 thing right for almost 80 years.
Road trip?
For not much more info, the Noose Son story is here.
UPDATE: thelaughingnoodle.com is up again and you can see the menu here.
8 noodle bowls, 3 soups, 2 salads & a chocolate fondue dessert. No new sides apparently

The local bus service just gave me a $20 gift certificate to a restaurant out in east fucking Jesus. There is one express route that can get me to about a mile of the place. I would have to go out around 5 PM & could return around 6:30 - 7 AM the next day. With transfers & zone fees & such it would cost about $5 & take about 3 hours round trip. The restaurant has no dining room so I would have to eat in the parking lot.
Needless to say, I am overjoyed.

More Diversions

A Love Story
Blue Tongue Films - all sorts of macabre little shorts. I love the handprint left on the doorframe in this one.

A little longer one.

I Love Sarah Jane
haha - these guys are great!

Born Free

Apparently there's been a big cat, a serval, roaming the wilds outside of it's home, Tremont City. It's probably been going through people's trash for the last 2 months. It has been declawed so it's defenses against other critters is impaired. It's about the size of a coyote, tho, so those guys will probably give it a wide berth.
It has recently been spotted near the Upper Valley Mall.

Noose Son story here.

Read All About It
Old Ohio Newspapers Online

The Ohio Historical Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress have taken to scanning & posting some of Ohio's old newspapers (& more) published between the 1880s & 1920s.
In Ohio they have started with Marion, Perrysburg, Akron, Canton, Mount Vernon, Logan, Marietta and Springfield's Springfield Daily Republic and Springfield Globe Republic.
The site is here.

Crappy Noose Son article here.

The Future of Paganism explored in essays about the Future of Religion.
Paganism is the latest religious belief(s) explored in a series including, Judaism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Mainline Protestantism & more.
Paganism or Neo-Paganism is one of the fastest growing religious movements in America today. Of course it's also one of the smallest, so, duh. Paganism is a blanket term including a large number of paths such as the modern Wicca & recreations of Greek & Egyptian religions.
Other religions, like Vodou & Hinduism, are very location oriented & the communications technologies of the 21st century could & have had profound implications.
So, what's in store for your religion?

The Confusion of Being Special

Sharrows, icons painted onto the roadways, tell cyclists which way to ride on the streets & theoretically let drivers know that they need to share the road with bicyclists who will, presumably, be riding where the sharrows appear.
Sharrows have recently been added to Spring Grove Avenue between Crawford Avenue & Mitchell Avenue. The room for the added bicycle space has been made by eliminating some of the center lane on the roadway & re-striping. Re-striping & keeping the curb clear of debris are, to a great extent, all that really needs to be done to make life happier for cyclists. Slow moving traffic is supposed to stay to the right of it's lane. I maintain that by trying to further accommodate cyclists, dull witted motorists will just get confused & further alienated.
While headed outbound on Spring Grove, already an easy cycling stretch, things are fine til you approach Salway Park. Then things get interesting.




yeah, I want to go there
Passing the park, the road narrows as you approach Winton Road. Here we find a rather ominous sharrow.




Where's the rider ?
ok, on reviewing my photos, I realize the sharrow images are not all the same. More confusion? Who knows what rationalization the chowderhead driver will make of these differences.
The stretch between Winton & Clifton is narrow due to a group of buildings built along the south side of the road. There used to be sidewalk all the way out to the curb.




When the city tore up the sidewalk, I thought, "great, they are going to widen the road & make it more bicycle (and truck) friendly".
Nope
They planted grass. The companies along this stretch do a good job of keeping their sidewalks clear in the winter which is hard with the city ploughing snow up onto their sidewalks whenever it snows. Now the companies have the added expense of having to maintain a grassy area.





Candidate for a Seed Bomb ?
Looking at the picture of Spring Grove Avenue, above, however, one sees a really obvious bike lane with a bit of separation from traffic via the utility poles. That is, put the bike lane to the right of the poles where the weeds ~er~ grass is. AH, who am I kidding, auto junkies would be careening into 'em constantly.





Approaching Clifton Avenue, the lanes split into right turn only, straight or right, straight only & left turn only. The Sharrow now moves into the most dangerous lane, the straight or right turn lane. Why? Beats me. What if I want to turn left? Also, when do I switch lanes? Back in front of the park there was a kind of lane switcher thingamabob. If this doesn't frazzle the Little Nemos of Autoland, nothing will. Well, if the zombie like driver even notices. After taking these pictures I returned home along Crawford. Going around a blind left curve, I heard an automobile coming up behind me. As I cleared the curve & saw nobody coming, I started to signal the motorist to pass but he had already driven completely over the double yellow line into the oncoming lane to pass me. These people have the self preservation instincts of lemmings. No amount of signage will help them. Adding more will just confuse and frustrate them more.
For more positive outlooks on this tom foolery check out UrbanCincy and Queen City Bike.

I feel like I should change the name of this blog to the bicycling curmudgeon.

Score One For The Nosferatu
Brains not Bombs.
7 folks dressed as zombies in Minneapolis were arrested by the local heat because they thought the zombie outfits were hiding bombs.
Story here.
They later sued & received $165,000 for the police misconduct.
This is, of course, the same police force that went batshit crazy during the last Republican Convention & busted, among others, journalist Amy Goodman (in St Paul) who has also sued the Minneapolis PD.
I hope Minneapolis can afford this police force...

A 1922 Kodachrome film test.
Wikipedia tells us Kodachrome was the first successful subtractive color system but was ultimately not commercially successful in the motion picture realm.
Noteworthy in this test is the total lack of dark greens & only a brief sampling of dark blue. I like the pale greens in the clothing. I wonder how many generations of reproduction this web video went through. There still seems to be some decent highlight detail but any shadow detail seems to have disappeared. A black person would have been good for showing off the shadow detail, of course, but it was 1922, so.....
The speed is great. The flickering of the light - not so great.

TMI ?
The Fishwrap reports that the Porkopolis Health Department has posted health inspection results online.
You can find the reports here.
Seems like the local places get hit harder than the chain stores. I am guessing this is because the chains know how to play the game better. If you actually look at the violations, what you find is that you should have died a long time ago from eating the cooking in your own filthy death trap of a kitchen.

Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics.
WVXU reports a law enforcement crackdown in upcoming weeks on impaired driving.

"Cincinnati Police Captain Dan Gerard says in Cincinnati alone 35 percent of all the traffic fatalities last year involved an impaired driver."

Alcohol Alert gives us a handy chart that gives us raw numbers & semi related percentages of drunk driving related fatalities in Ohio since 1982. 1987 was a banner year for traffic fatalities overall and for DUI fatalities as well although percentage DUI fatalities were higher in '82 and while overall fatalities were matched in '89, the number of them involving impaired drivers was down. In fact the number of DUI related fatalities is way down. Unfortunately the overall number of fatalities has not seen as great a reduction. In fact, since 1982 when drunk driving fatalities were at their highest percentages at 60% sober fatalities have risen from 641 to 775 - or an increase of 20% while drunk driving fatalities have dropped off by more than half.
Does this mean sober drivers are getting worse? Drunk drivers are getting better? Should drivers be required a minimum before they get behind the wheel? Should local law enforcement be cracking down on sober drivers at insobriety checkpoints?
Actually to figure out such trends you would have to know the number of drivers in Ohio & that would e a guesstimate since people from out of state frequently are driving here. Of course, you have to note the percentages cited at Alcohol Alert is based on miles driven. Their note that Ohio counts alcohol related accidents differently than the Feds, who presumably rely on the states to compile their info, throws a whole 'nother wrench into the gears.
It's a good thing clown cars don't wreck or we'd have fatality rates in the ∞'s.

Unbalanced Fair Coverage
A sampling of Fishwrap headlines today:
Toddler dies in Amelia crash
Two women found dead in home
Son accused of killing mom jailed
One killed in Butler County crash
Social InSecurity
Gunmen invade Westwood home
Deputy stabbed, kills attacker
Is it any wonder they didn't cover the local county fair?
Virtually doubling their fair coverage the Fishwrap gives us this wrap up article, Fair Attendance May Be All Time Low, on the Hamilton County Faur. Commenters cite a lack of publicity. The Fishwrap's total lack of coverage in favor of follow the gun reporting could be an issue here, I think.
So the Cincinnati Enquirer has 2 morose articles about the local county fair & about 18 not too good photos vs the Springfield News Sun managing about 20 articles & over 200 photos, some being pretty darn good and the Springfield News Sun still has room for shocking gory headlines.
Man stabbed multiple times at motel
OSU paid Kasich $4K per classroom session
Two in Urbana arrested on drug abuse charges
Driver was on tracks when crossing arm came down
Employees lock themselves in office during overnight robbery.
Why?
It's been clear for some time now that The Cincinnati Enquirer hates Cincinnati but it appears it's hatred has spilled over to include the whole county. Great.
Previous post on the topic here.

FWIW the Kasich article is pretty good. Will the unabashedly Republican Fishwrap report this?

Chains

About a month ago I posted about Spring Grove Cemetery knocking down a good chunk of brick wall along Crawford Avenue. I wanted to wait till they got some grass or other landscaping in but they seem to have stalled out.
Anyway, here's some pics of their wonderful new chain link fence.


One nice thing is that you can see this one pond from the road now.

I have to admit the black fence does a good job of "disappearing" but it's just not as stately & cemeteryish as the old brick wall.

Cyber Security
I was babbling at one time about cyber security & compared server administrators to broadcast transmitter engineers. They both manage conduits of information dissemination. So why are broadcast engineers required to be licensed by the government (and required to physically defend the transmitter) but server administrators aren't required of any certification other than their employers wish that they have some kind of hardware / software manufacturer's ?
Jimmy Lehrer's News Hour sent a reporter to The Black Hat Convention in Las Vegas to interview hackers & retired General & ex CIA Director Michael Hayden. While the licensing I am advocating wasn't mentioned I think the dialogue makes my point. It's important that we secure our communications systems but also our utility, service & manufacturing systems as well.

Part I: here.

Part II: here.

City Ruins Bundle HALF OFF !!

City Ruins Bundle
DAZ 3D is offering Stonemason's product line for Poser at half off. This includes the City Ruins Bundle, The Warehouse, The Streets of NYC-Townhouse Row, Jungle Ruins, Urban Sprawl and more!!
Everything you need for your post-apocalypse urban Poser scenes.
Go here.
BIC is not affiliated with DAZ, Stonemason or SmithMicro.

Am I Governor Material ?
The Columbus Dispatch asked Ohio's Republican & Democtrat candidates for governor 25 questions.
How do I measure up ?
I know nothing of sports. My news gathering is pretty much local. I do grasp the concept of "fast food".
I'm wondering if Kasich's excercising & praying is along the lines of jogging while huffing & puffing, "OH GOD!"
Anyway, if this is all it takes to be governor.....

1. What book are you reading right now?
QB: Infamous Lady, The True Story Of Countess Erzsebet Bathory

2. Are you a smoker?
Ever been a smoker?
QB: no & no

3. What is your favorite fast-food restaurant (If you eat fast food)?
QB: White Castle

4. What was your first car?
QB: Pontiac Bonneville (aka The Grey Ghost)

5. Did you have a favorite childhood pet? What was its name?
QB: a cat named cat

6. Who was the best baseball player ever?
Football?
Basketball?
QB: not a clue

7. Do you personally use Facebook, MySpace or Twitter?
QB: FaceBook, MySpace no Twitter

8. Where do you get most of your news?
QB: Fishwrap, WLWT, Newsmakers, Citicable, Skrying

9. What is your favorite movie, and who are your favorite actor and actress?
QB: Blade Runner, no favorite actors & actresses

10. Have you ever smoked marijuana?
QB: yup

11. Have you used anything to color your hair?
QB: only for theatrical stuff

12. Would you rather have lunch with William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Tom Clancy or Stephen King?
QB: Twain

13. What is the highest level of math you completed?
QB: Algebra II

14. Do you have a favorite NASCAR driver?
QB: no

15. How many Columbus Blue Jackets games have you seen in person?
QB: 0

16. What does your wife get on your case about?
QB: nothing - she know's what's best for her

17. Who was the best U.S. president?
QB: Gerald Ford

18. What is your preferred alcoholic beverage?
QB: beer

19. Where did you take your wife for your last anniversary?
QB: out back

20. When they make a movie about you, which actor should play you and what would be the title?
QB: Sid Haig, Paradise Lost

21. Have you ever gambled? What's your favorite casino game?
QB: yes. Dunno, they are all boring.

22. Do you have a tattoo or piercing? Please specify.
QB: no & no

23. What vegetable will you not eat?
QB: okra

24. On the rare occasion that you're alone and unscheduled on a Saturday morning, how do you spend your time?
QB: go to the cemetery

25. Do you text?
QB: no

Hamilton County Fair Opens
The Springfield News-Sun (online) posted 23 articles about the Clark County Fair and posted over 200 photos. They are currently plugging the Champaign County Faur.
The Hamilton County Fair begins today & runs through Saturday. Will the Cincinnati Enquirer rise to the occasion?
So far we have an article bemoaning the fair's inadequacies & tells us how much better surrounding counties fairs are. One commenter says he will not set foot in Carthage. We got 9 photos here. MetroMix acknowledges the fairgrounds exist.
Maybe somebody will murder somebody at the fair & the local news media will cover it.
UPDATE: 8 more pictures.

Happy B-Day Bethie !

City Death Benefit
While the City of Cincinnati is wrestling with it's pension plan, one place to look for possibly some small savings is it's death benefit. Raised from $1,000 about a decade ago to $7,000 today, does indeed reflect the cost of burial and a funeral. I think my mom's was $11,xxx. You can get buried for considerably less & a simple cremation can be had for under $1,000.
I would suggest a cap of $6-7,000 to be paid when the survivors submit billing for the retirees funeral. Sure, there would be room for the survivor to profit off their loved ones demise but requiring the bill should cover a lot of those issues & the money is to bury the retiree not spread an equal amount of cash around to relatives.
Lowering the benefit to $2,000, as recommended, is pretty drastic.

A Headmistress ?
When I was a kid I attended a small independent private school called Ridgewood. It was established to serve the kids in the fledgling Ridgewood community pioneered by Harry Kissel & recognized by Theodore Roosevelt. Shortly after I started there they moved out to a rural area on the edge of the Springfield Country Club who allowed the students to use their hillsides for sledding in the winter. Probably more than half the kids there were members anyway. On the other side of the school was a cow pasture. The fragrant aromas wafting through the breeze made us all long for winter.
The school didn't have a principal, it had a headmaster. He was a mean old bastard if you were an asshole & a kind and nurturing teacher if you showed any common sense. I remember him as a mean old bastard mainly. ~ahem~ He was a Methodist minister and taught math, Latin & German. His wife taught science & taught a kind of intelligent design. It wasn't the closed minded fundamentalist crap being pushed today.
The school had a student body of about 100. With the small classes there was no room for mischief. There was a very active PTA and it was not uncommon for kids to find a teacher at the dinner table. Every morning, assembling in the gymnasium, we recited the Lord's Prayer & the Pledge of Allegiance.
When I first attended a public school I was terrified by the other kids behavior. I also learned that, after years of being taunted by public school kids for going to a "retard" school, I was about a year or two ahead of most of the public school kids.
Ohio’s oldest independent private school has a new headmaster now, a headmistress actually (headperson ?), who comes from a Catholic school background. Not sure what the old headmaster would have thought of that....
Noose Son story here.

In the event of a Zombie uprising, who would best be suited to broker a peace between the walking dead & the flesh bags?

My initial thought was Frankenstein's monster because he has been dead and alive and alive again. But the more I think about it, I am thinking he might be better off providing legal counsel for the zombies.
Ann Coulter is a shoo in to address the zombies because she is so scrawny the zombies won't bother trying to eat her. They might go for her brain.. ~ah, who am I kidding? OTOH, she is so annoying the warmies might wind up killing her. Probably not a good choice.
Bill Compton has made his peace with humans by drinking True Blood. Maybe he could glamour some scientists into inventing True Brain.
Another idea might be Godzilla since he is a monster, he could be pretty objective about the whole thing.
Another way to go might be Barbie. Like Godzilla, she could also bring objectivity, she is trusted by warmies & like Coulter, pretty much inedible.
Finally there would be Some Black Guy. Because he did so well in Night of the Living Dead.